The status and distribution of ancient woodland in Dorset - Part 1: Details of methods used in updating the status and distribution of Ancient Woodland (ENRR558)

This report highlights changes in the status and distribution of ancient woodland in Dorset. There is actual change since the 1988 inventory (Spencer, 1988) due to mistakes in the initial recording between ancient semi-natural woodland and plantation on ancient woodland sites, and mistakes in the digital boundaries. There is also a discrepancy between the area given by the original data and the GIS data. The survey has found 62 cases where semi-natural area and plantation on ancient woodland sites were inverted, 49 sites that have been cleared and 55 sites where there were errors in digitisation. From the original database, this represents a loss of 348 ha of ancient semi-natural woodland, a gain of 83 ha of plantation on ancient woodland sites, an additional 59 ha of clearance and an overall loss of area of ancient woodland of almost 291 ha.